I should have proposed something like this months ago, back when it was still possible to create / launch it before Halloween. I seriously doubt it could be completed by then - even if fully approved and given all available manpower. Still, I haven’t designed it just to exist as a limited time holiday event. No, I think of this more as a permanent feature in the world. Something that can encourage participation in a certain area, including some forms of PvP that go beyond simply dueling with swords in sparing arenas. I hope this gives spice and flavor to the concept of Faction / Guild wars. Imagine multiple such thematic locations where guilds may capture and then impact the game-world. Where guilds may strive to bring changes / interactions to other players.
Is this fit for Phoenix? I hope so, but I could certainly take it elsewhere. Though I would appreciate the resources and potential player base of a project / server the size of Phoenix. If Graal Reborn is to have an active server, we should think up ways to keep players interested in it. So I post this here, in hopes you might make this a reality. That you might see the value in adding this to your server.
Let me be clear, I just typed this up today. Nothing about it is set in stone. It’s all malleable, I’m just trying to get the idea started, maybe even adopted. I would put in time and effort to see it created, but that effort might not be given for a few months as I got a lot of other work to do between now and then. So this is going to sit here, maybe untouched for a while, but I intend to see this sort of content on a Graal Reborn server - completed - in less than a year. With your adoption it could be sooner.
So please let me know,
1: What do you think of it?
2: Could it fit in with Phoenix?
3 : Should we work together?
Content Proposal: Haunted Guild Castle
Step 1: Discovery Quest
Players, possibly via a quest / breadcrumb, will discover a vendor claiming to sell a magic lantern.
With this lantern players may cast a “reveal” spell over an area, and potentially uncover a ghost baddie. Travel the world and search every nook and cranny, never knowing where a ghost might hide. Defeat X number of ghost baddies to charge up the lantern. Once charged, it’ll open a portal to a “boss” fight against a large and powerful ghost baddie. If players discover and defeat this boss, they’ll be given access to the Haunted Castle (and its surrounding lands?).
Step 2: The Castle.
Any player who has completed the discovery event in Step1, will be able to enter this “dungeon” / “guild fort”. I consider the purpose of this place to be both. It should have a decent Zelda like dungeon feel to it, with rooms of baddies / challenges. It should include multiple floors with pits to fall through - sending the players backwards into a lower floor as punishment. Ghost baddies inside will attempt to push players into the lower levels. Themes may include ghosts, undead, old rot and decay. Tricks, traps, magical illusions. The floor may appear solid when it is not. It’s like a Haunted House.
Any player reaching the top of the Haunted Castle may find another boss fight / item reward waiting for them there. But the key aspect of reaching the top is the ability to claim ownership. Yes, the Haunted Castle should be captureable. Members of the owning guild may skip the dungeon to go straight to the roof. They also have access to each lower floor, and are given ways to impede other players from reaching the top. Imagine that, as the owning guild they are given toys / gears / levers to pull - and in this way they can be a sort of dungeon master. Increasing and shaping the challenge against anyone who’d scale their Castle.
While we might allow it, it’s not even necessary to enable PvP in the classic sense. The invading players would be fighting the Castle’s natural defenses, while the defending players are trying to strengthen the defenses. Such interactions can be spawning traps, baddies, baddie portals, or even assuming the role of a baddie with a costume. This might even involve spending consumables, which brings me to my next point.
Step 3 : Farming Spectral Essences.
Any player on the Haunted Castle or its associated levels may search around for and collect tokens. I’ll call them Spectral Essences. They are either laying on the ground and/or farmed by defeating ghost baddies. Once you collect X number of Spectral Essences you can turn them in for “rewards”. Say your own ghost portal, which you may carry around and place anywhere you like. An open ghost portal will produce a “haunting” effect on a level, making town NPCs react, to fight or hide from the ghost baddies that spawn. These ghosts will attack or bother players. Players may attack the portal to close it and end the event. To be clear, I’m thinking of these being carried to and used in places like Vale.
Another reward might be a Ghost costume. Players can consume it to turn themselves into a ghost, granting them special abilities. This may allow players to attack the player or his costume to prematurely end the effect. Essentially we’re turning the player into a baddie. They get to run around role playing as a ghost.
Maybe some other things to purchase / ways to use the Spectral Essences. It’s really just a currency tied to player activity in a certain area. A way to motivate time spent in / around the Haunted Castle.
Step 4: The Haunting.
Server wide event. Think of it as a global version of the Ghost Portal / Ghost Costume. The guild owning the Haunted Castle may gather up their Spectral Essences and pour them into the device on top the Castle. Once charged, after a significant amount is gathered, the owning guild may launch the event. It spawns Ghost Portals in multiple cities / levels across the server. It also allows the owning guild to freely pick up Ghost Costumes to use in-mass for the event. Basically they all get to run around and terrorize the server. Think of it as an invasion event from some popular MMOs.
The event will end on its own after an… hour? Or so. Players may also lay siege to the Haunted Castle, and if they scale to the top and capture it they can stop the event.
